Instant messaging has become a popular form of communication among employers, employees, customers, clients, colleagues, and students. In general, instant messaging is a form of electronic communication involving real-time communication between two or more users who are concurrently connected to a network (e.g., an intranet, the Internet). When one user sends an instant message to another user, the receiver is instantly notified of the message. In addition, instant messaging systems typically employ “buddy lists” or “contact lists” by which users may specify individuals with which they prefer to exchange instant messages and for which they desire notification whenever an individual on the list comes online.
These buddy lists or contact lists also serve as mechanisms by which a user can monitor the online status of those specified individuals. When activated, a buddy list displays whether or not a listed individual is online (e.g., through a change in color of the name and icon), thus making the user “aware” of the presence of other people. The user can then send instant messages to those individuals. Accordingly, an instant messaging system is an example of a system that provides an awareness service. Other examples of systems that can provide awareness services include web conferencing systems and document sharing systems.
Many users of instant messaging, though, complain of receiving a high number of interruptions throughout the day. To avoid the interruptions, some users choose not to log onto their instant messaging system, or to log on only during those periods when their schedules allow for interruptions. By not logging on, however, these users may miss important or urgent communications. Some instant messaging systems recognize this potential for frequent distractions and allow the user to publish (i.e., make known online to others logged onto the instant messaging system) that the user is busy. Such systems, however, are all-or-nothing; after posting a “Do Not Disturb,” the user receives no instant messages from anyone, including people from whom the user would welcome a communication. Some systems provide a way to specify a list of certain people who can see when the user is online (i.e., by specifically listing those people who can see (“only the following list of people can see”) or those who cannot see (“everybody can see except the following list of people”). This list, however, needs to be configured each time the user logs on. The settings cannot be saved or used with groups or with a calendar and cannot be used differently in different contexts.